NOTES  OF  A  SUMMER  TOUR 


AMONG  THE 


INDIANS  OF  THE  SOUTHWEST 


FRANCIS  E.  LEUPP, 

Washington  Agent  of  the  Indian  Rights  Association. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

OFFICE  OF  THE  INDIAN  RIGHTS  ASSOCIATION, 

No.  1305  ARCH   STREET. 

1897. 


7  t 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


Bancrou 


NOTES  OF  A  SUMMER  TOUR 


AMONG   THE 


INDIANS   OF  THE   SOUTHWEST, 


My  annual  tour  in  the  Indian  country  this  year  included  a 
most  interesting  visit  to  Fort  Sill,  O.  T.,.  where  the  Chiricahua 
band  of  Apache  prisoners  have  their  home. 

To  travel  through  Arizona  and  hear  the  people  talk  of  Geron- 
imo,  the  Apache  arch-fiend,  who,  if  he  set  foot  in  the  Territory, 
would  be  hanged  for  murder  without  the  formality  of  a  trial,  is 
impressive.  But  to  pass  up  into  Oklahoma  and  find  this  same 
Geronimo  putting  in  his  honest  eight  hours  of  work  daily  as  a 
farmer  in  the  fields,  and  at  intervals  donning  his  uniform  as  a 
United  States  scout  and  presenting  himself  with  the  other  scouts 
for  inspection,  is  still  more  so. 

Most  Indian  outbreaks  have  been  the  result  of  a  situation 
which,  in  a  measure  at  least,  justified  them.  To  go  upon  the 
warpath  is  sometimes  the  only  means  left  to  a  tribe  for  calling 
the  attention  of  the  Government  and  the  people  sharply  to  the 
wrongs  it  has  been  suffering.  Other  cases  find  a  type  in  the  last 
campaign  of  Chief  Joseph,  who,  after  the  Government  had 
wickedly  removed  the  Nez  Perces  to  a  region  where  they  died 
like  sheep  smitten  with  a  murrain,  led  his  people  across  the 
country  on  a  march  which  has,  perhaps,  never  been  paralleled 
in  military  history,  and  which  need  not  have  cost  a  single  human 
life  but  for  the  folly  of  his  pursuers. 

No  excuse  seems,  however,  to  have  been  urged  or  sought  in 
the  case  of  Geronimo.  He  was  simply  troubled  with  what  the 

3 


Indians  call  a  bad  heart ;  and,  all  his  savage  impulses  stimulated 
by  the  obvious  terror  of  the  white  communities  which  he  threat 
ened,  he  went  on  his  career  of  plunder,  rapine,  and  bloodshed 
until  General  Miles  cornered  him  and  induced  him  to  surrender. 
Realizing  what  the  incensed  state  of  local  feeling  would  lead  to 
if  Geronimo  and  his  Chiricahua  band  were  allowed  to  remain 
within  reach  of  the  people  he  had  terrorized,  Miles  hurried  them 
away  to  a  place  where  they  would  be  safe  as  prisoners  of  war  until 
the  Government  could  decide  what  to  do  with  them.  The  next 
few  years  were  passed,  as  may  be  remembered,  in  Florida  and 
Alabama,  where,  though  under  more  or  less  close  confinement,  a 
part  of  the  band  received  their  first  lessons  in  civilization  at  the 
hands  of  Lieutenant  Witherspoon.  Finally,  in  the  fall  of  1894, 
the  War  Department  issued  an  order  for  their  removal  to  Fort 
Sill,  a  military  post  in  Oklahoma,  where  they  passed  under  the 
care  of  Captain  Hugh  L.  Scott,  of  the  Seventh  Cavalry. 

It  was  an  unprepossessing  task  at  which  to  set  the  Captain. 
The  idea  of  bringing  these  savage  Indians  into  Oklahoma  was 
violently  opposed  by  the  white  population  already  settled  there. 
The  officers  and  troops  at  the  post  were  not  at  all  predisposed  in 
favor  of  their  new  neighbors,  who  had  a  bad  name  everywhere  ; 
and  the  charge  of  such  a  band  partook  too  much  of  the  nature 
of  mere  police  duty  to  please  the  strictly  military  taste.  So  the 
outlook  for  converting  this  gang  of  outlaws  to  respectability  was 
not  encouraging  at  first. 

But  Captain  Scott  had  his  own  notions,  and  he  persevered 
with  them.  He  was  fortunate  in  the  one  respect  of  having  the 
War  Department  to  deal  with  ;  as  that  Department,  always  pre 
suming  that  an  army  officer  is  a  gentleman  and  a  man  of  honor, 
embarrasses  him  with  far  less  red  tape  than  the  Interior  Depart 
ment,  which  transacts  its  business  on  the  apparent  theory  that 
every  agent  is  either  an  incompetent  or  a  thief. 

After  assuring  himself  that  the  Apache  prisoners  were  to  make 
their  permanent  home  at  Fort  Sill,  Captain  Scott  resolved  to 
provide  them  with  houses.  For  this  purpose  he  had  them  divide 
into  twelve  groups  or  villages,  according  to  kindred  or  intimate 
friendbhip.  The  head  man  in  each  group  was  ordered  to  select, 
within  certain  boundaries,  a  site  for  his  village,  having  reference 
to  both  its  scenic  and  its  sanitary  attractions.  The  village  system 


was  adopted  for  various  reasons,  chief  among  which  was  the  fact 
that  the  country,  through  lack  of  water,  is  not  adapted  to 
agriculture,  but  only  to  grazing,  and  stock  flourish  best  when 
kept  on  a  large  common  range  ;  the  impracticability  of  separate 
and  scattered  farms  was  therefore  obvious.  Other  considerations 
were  the  greater  content  of  the  Indians  when  in  close  social 
companionship  with  their  relatives  in  their  leisure  hours,  and  the 
greater  ease  of  inspecting  their  condition  and  controlling  their 
movements. 

The  model  selected  by  Captain  Scott  for  his  houses  was  that 
known  as  "two  pens  and  a  passage."  Two  small  cottages  are 
under  one  roof,  but  an  open  space  about  as  broad  as  either  of 
the  cottages  is  left  between  them.  Doors  from  the  two  cottages 
open  upon  the  passage.  The  advantage  of  this  arrangement  in 
a  country  where  the  sun  beats  down  in  midsummer  with  parching 
fierceness,  and  where  trees  on  the  uplands  are  almost  unknown, 
is  that  it  affords  one  shady  out-of-doors  spot  in  connection  with 
each  dwelling.  The  Indian  family  that  occupies  the  double  cot 
tage  has  domestic  work  during  the  day, — washing,  preparing  the 
food  for  cooking,  etc., — which  can  be  done  better  in  the  open 
air  than  inside,  and  here  it  can  be  done  in  the  shade  and  with 
comparative  comfort.  At  other  times,  when  the  men  are  in 
from  the  fields  and  taking  their  rest,  this  is  a  favorite  place  for 
their  social  enjoyment.  The  passage,  moreover,  is  required  to 
be  kept  in  as  neat  condition  as  any  other  part  of  the  premises, 
and  it  does  away  with  the  multitude  of  ramshackle  open-air 
shelters  which  usually  make  the  neighborhood  of  a  Government 
cabin  on  an  Indian  reservation  look  so  untidy  and  forlorn. 

To  build  the  cabins  it  was  necessary  to  have  wood  and  labor. 
Most  of  the  Indians  were  ignorant  of  the  use  of  tools,  but 
under  the  instruction  of  a  patient  white  mechanic  they  were 
soon  taught  enough  to  cut  long  pickets  on  the  nearest  timber 
land.  An  old  saw-mill,  formerly  in  use  for  the  Kiowas  and 
Comanches,  but  which  had  fallen  into  disuse  and  was  about  to 
be  condemned,  was  borrowed,  repaired,  and  hauled  down  to  a 
place  convenient  to  the  lumbering  operations,  where  the  Indians 
were  taught  to  work  it,  with  the  assistance  of  a  white  engineer 
to  manage  the  boiler.  The  pickets  were  squared  and  made 
ready  for  building.  Then  came  the  first  hitch.  Mules  were 


6 

needed  to  haul  the  pickets  to  the  building  sites,  and  it  was  three 
months  before  the  animals  were  furnished.  Captain  Scott  became 
alarmed  lest  all  his  plans  should  fail  after  so  much  had  been  done. 
He  accordingly  fell  back  upon  a  quantity  of  sawed  lumber  which 
happened  to  be  more  accessible.  This  will  account  for  the  fact 
that,  of  the  seventy  houses,  more  than  two-thirds  are  built  of 
sawed  lumber,  instead  of  pickets  as  originally  proposed. 

But  all  the  houses  are  of  the  Indians'  own  construction.  They 
acted  as  so  many  pairs  of  hands,  under  competent  white  direc 
tion,  in  framing  and  raising  the  buildings,  closing  them  in,  roof 
ing  and  painting  them.  The  Indian  is  a  natural  mechanic,  and 
these  Apaches  proved  apt  pupils  as  soon  as  Captain  Scott  had 
convinced  them  that  as  prisoners  of  war  they  were  obliged  to  do 
what  their  captors  demanded,  and  that  they  would  find  their 
highest  comfort  and  profit  in  working  for  themselves.  Now  that 
they  have  got  their  houses  and  have  been  quartered  in  them  long 
enough  to  give  them  a  thorough  trial,  the  more  intelligent 
Indians  appear  to  have  settled  down  to  the  notion  that  their 
present  mode  of  living  is  an  improvement  on  their  old  nomadic 
existence.  Even  those  who  are  not  yet  converted  have,  at  all 
events,  learned  that  in  silent  resignation  lies  their  greatest  safety, 
and  they  live  their  lives  and  go  about  their  daily  work  with  at 
least  the  outward  appearance  of  contentment. 

On  the  bottom-lands  and  along  the  edges  of  a  creek,  the 
Indians  have  their  garden  patches  and  cultivated  crops.  Such 
water  as  is  used  has  to  be  brought  by  hand  from  the  creek.  They 
raise  corn  for  roasting-ears,  melons  and  canteloupes,  etc.  Such 
of  their  surplus  garden  products  as  are  good  enough  they  ped 
dle  at  the  neighboring  Fort  and  among  the  white  mechanics  and 
others  living  on  its  outskirts.  But  the  great  crop  for  the  bottom 
lands  in  so  dry  a  region  is  karfir  corn.  Captain  Scott  has  added 
to  his  military  accomplishments  those  of  a  practical  farmer.  He 
studies  the  agricultural  reports  and  the  local  farm  newspapers  as 
diligently  as  he  used  to  study  his  tactics.  Some  time  ago  he  became 
convinced  that  the  soil  and  climate  of  Fort  Sill  were  well  adapted 
to  kaffir  corn,  and  made  some  experiments  which  amply  justified 
his  conclusion.  This  crop  furnishes  both  human  food  and  forage 
for  stock.  The  grain  is  developed  in  the  head,  and  is  a  nutritious 


breadstuff;  and,  besides  the  grain,  the  stalks  and  leaves  can  be 
fed  to  animals  like  those  of  the  ordinary  corn. 

Fort  Sill  is  situated  on  a  rectangular  reservation  supposed  to 
run  due  east  and  west.  The  surveyors  who  platted  it  out  evi 
dently  did  not  allow  for  the  variations  of  the  needle,  however, 
and  the  lines  actually  run  slightly  west-by-north  and  east-by- 
south,  inclosing  about  23,000  acres.  The  reservation  is  on  land 
belonging  to  the  Kiowas  and  Comanches.  It  was  only  by  their 
permission,  procured  through  the  friendly  offices  of  Captain 
Scott,  whom  they  knew  and  trusted,  that  the  Apache  prisoners 
were  brought  and  planted  there.  Recently,  owing  to  the 
necessity  for  a  larger  tract  for  grazing  purposes,  Captain  Scott 
procured  the  consent  of  the  Kiowas  and  Comanches  to  the  addi 
tion  of  some  30,000  acres  to  the  Fort  Sill  reservation,  and  last 
February  President  Cleveland  made  the  addition  by  an  execu 
tive  order.  The  new  parts  are  rectangular,  and  are  added  to 
either  end  of  the  original  reservation,  but  following  corrected 
township  lines.  The  addition  at  the  east  end  runs  north  and 
south,  and  that  at  the  other  end  east  and  west,  so  that  the  whole 
tract  resembles  a  figure  7  lying  on  its  side.  As  the  Government 
will,  in  due  course,  abandon  Fort  Sill  as  a  military  post,  it  is 
hoped  that  Congress  will  appropriate  money  for  the  purchase  of 
the  whole  figure  7,  so  that  the  Apaches,  now  so  well  on  the 
road  toward  civilization,  may  hold  all  the  good  they  have 
gained  and  be  encouraged  to  advance  further.  As  there  are 
some  questions  still  unsettled  in  connection  with  the  future  of 
the  Kiowas  and  Comanches,  it  has  been  deemed  best  to  let  this 
matter  lie  over  for  the  present. 

The  prairie  included  in  the  Apache  subreserve  is  not  pasture- 
land  alone.  On  a  part  of  it  grows  a  native  grass  which,  when 
long  enough  to  cut,  can  be  cured  into  a  very  fair  quality  of  hay. 
So  Captain  Scott  has  taken  his  Apaches  into  the  hay  market, 
and  they  have  been  successful  bidders  on  a  $5000  Government 
contract  for  supplying  the  stables  at  Fort  Sill.  They  had  also, 
at  last  accounts,  put  in  a  bid  for  supplying  the  Fort  with  300,000 
pounds  of  Kaffir  corn — a  contract  which,  if  it  should  bear  out 
its  promise,  would  bring  them  about  $2000  clear  profit. 

Meanwhile,  the  Indians'  cattle  have  been  getting  their  subsist 
ence  from  the  pasture-lands.  Captain  Scott  attends  carefully  to  the 


8 

buying  of  the  stock, which,  though  comparing  unfavorably  in  point 
of  size  with  some  of  the  big-boned  animals  of  a  more  northerly 
latitude,  are  good  of  their  kind,  and  the  best  which  can  be  suc 
cessfully  bred  in  this  neighborhood.  The  Chiricahua  band  are 
entered  as  a  whole  as  a  member  of  the  Texas  Cattle  Association. 
This  gives  them  the  protection  afforded  by  the  Association's 
inspection  system  against  the  introduction  of  diseased  animals 
into  their  herds,  and  also  the  aid  of  the  detectives  who  are  en 
gaged  in  hunting  down  and  punishing  cattle-thieves.  The 
cattle,  as  they  increase,  will  be  used  in  part  for  the  subsistence  of 
their  owners,  and  the  surplus  will  be  sent  to  the  beef  market  at 
Kansas  City. 

By  a  judicious  course  of  instruction,  including  both  precept 
and  object-lessons,  Captain  Scott  has  contrived  to  teach  his 
Apaches  something  about  the  value  of  a  dollar.  This  is  no 
easy  task  with  a  barbarous  people,  accustomed  to  live  only  from 
hand  to  mouth,  and  knowing  nothing  of  trade  except  that  when 
they  were  hungry  and  it  was  impracticable  to  find  food  or  steal  it, 
they  could  sometimes  get  it  by  bartering  anything  they  happened 
to  have  on  hand — perhaps  a  gun  for  a  loaf,  a  last  blanket  for  a 
handful  of  dried  meat.  But  a  better  idea  can  be  drummed  into 
the  minds  even  of  savages,  if  one  has  tact  and  patience.  When 
these  Chiricahuas  began  to  discover  how  convenient  it  was  to 
have  a  little  ready  money  on  hand,  how  much  more  they  could 
get  for  a  coin  than  for  the  equivalent  of  that  coin  in  any  form 
of  exchange,  they  had  taken  their  first  step.  The  effect  of 
peddling  their  vegetables  was  in  itself  a  revelation.  Another 
was  in  store  when  Captain  Scott  procured  a  well-boring  machine, 
and  taught  the  Indians  how  to  use  it.  They  were  then  shown 
the  wisdom  of  taking  care  of  a  good  piece  of  machinery,  since 
they  were  not  only  enabled  to  bore  wells  for  all  the  villages, 
but  could  earn  money  by  going  among  the  Kiowas  and 
Comanches,  and  among  the  whites  outside,  and  boring  wells  on 
contract.  Other  mechanical  implements  have  been  added  to  the 
plant  from  time  to  time.  The  latest  purchase  was  a  couple  of 
hay-balers.  These  were  employed  in  preparing  the  hay  for 
delivery  under  this  year's  contract,  and  will  become  the  per 
manent  property  of  the  Indians,  to  be  preserved  and  used  in 
future  years. 

*         *         *         * 


It  has  already  been  remarked  that  in  choosing  sites  for  the 
Apache  villages,  Captain  Scott  gave  much  latitude  to  the  judg 
ment  of  the  head  men.  This  suggests  another  chapter  of  the 
story. 

Two  courses  lie  open  to  every  agent  or  other  officer  who  takes 
charge  of  a  band  of  Indians.  He  finds  them  organized  under 
certain  leadership.  There  will,  perhaps,  be  a  war  chief,  a  peace 
chief,  several  sub-chiefs,  head  men,  and  the  like.  He  may 
promptly  depose  all  these  dignitaries  and  announce  himself  as 
the  sole  source  of  authority,  calling  no  councils,  asking  no 
advice,  and  brooking  no  interference.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
may  place  himself  wholly  outside  of  the  organization,  refer  every 
thing  to  the  leaders,  issue  his  communications  through  them,  and, 
by  deferring  to  their  wishes  in  all  matters,  add  to  the  authority 
they  already  possess  the  sanction  of  Government  support.  In 
deciding  at  the  outset  what  attitude  he  shall  take  toward  the 
existing  organization,  he  may  make  or  mar  his  entire  administra 
tion.  No  unvarying  rule  can  be  laid  down,  applicable  to  all 
Indians  and  all  conditions.  In  some  instances  the  prominent 
members  of  a  tribe  have  been  so  spoiled  by  timid  or  time-serving 
agents  that  to  give  them  any  rein  whatever  means  to  surrender 
all  hope  of  advancing  their  followers  in  civilization.  In  other 
cases  it  is  the  conservative,  wise,  steady-headed  old  men  upon 
whom  the  agent  must  lean  in  trying  to  keep  the  younger  generation 
out  of  vice  and  crime,  while  the  so-called  "progressive  "  element 
are  lending  themselves,  often  under  the  cloak  of  religion,  to 
every  scheme  for  making  money  out  of  their  own  flesh  and  blood. 
It  therefore  behooves  the  white  officer  in  command  to  study 
well  the  condition  in  which  he  finds  his  Indians,  and  shape  his 
conduct  accordingly. 

Captain  Scott,  in  dealing  with  his  Apaches,  has  taken  a  shrewd 
middle  course.  He  has  neither  ignored  the  leaders  of  the  band 
nor  abdicated  in  their  favor,  but  has  simply  made  use  of  the  in 
struments  nature  and  circumstances  placed  in  his  hand.  The 
Apaches,  like  other  tribes  in  a  nomadic  state,  undoubtedly  chose 
their  chiefs  and  head  men  for  some  inherent  quality  of  leader 
ship.  This  trait  in  an  Indian  chief  may  not  always  present  a 
phase  of  virtue  to  our  more  enlightened  view.  His  stoical  indif 
ference  to  suffering  of  his  own,  which  challenges  our  admiration, 


10 

may  be  associated  with  the  most  revolting  cruelty  toward  others ; 
his  brilliant  generalship  in  the  field  may  have  for  its  companion- 
piece  a  degree  of  treachery  which  would  disgrace  the  meanest  of 
spies ;  his  generosity  in  giving  away  his  last  rag  of  clothing  or 
ear  of  corn  to  his  followers  may  be  coupled  with  uncommon  skill 
and  prowess  as  a  thief.  But,  be  that  as  it  may,  the  fact  that  he 
towers  above  all  his  fellows  in  one  thing  or  in  many  has  made 
him  a  marked  figure ;  and  if  he  is  ready  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  he  is  only  a  lieutenant  and  not  in  command,  he  may  be  made 
very  useful  to  the  white  man  over  him. 

Acting  upon  this  theory,  Captain  Scott  promptly  recognized 
the  position  of  several  of  the  leading  men  in  the  Chiricahua 
band.  But  he  did  it  with  discretion.  When  the  Indians  first 
came  to  Fort  Sill,  for  instance,  Geronimo  was  considered  a  great 
curiosity.  He  was  nearly  mobbed  here,  as  he  had  been  both  in 
Alabama  and  Florida,  by  sightseers,  who  would  often  bring  him 
presents  for  the  honor  of  shaking  his  hand.  This  was  precisely 
what  ought  not  to  have  been  done,  as  it  tended  merely  to  keep  the 
old  Indian's  vanity  in  full  blast,  and  to  give  him  a  false  and 
damaging  importance  among  the  younger  members  of  the  tribe. 
Captain  Scott  quickly  gave  orders  that  all  such  folly  should  cease. 
He  did  not  commit  the  opposite  error  of  needlessly  humiliating 
Geronimo,  and  thus  stamping  him  as  a  martyr,  but  quietly  and 
unostentatiously  set  him  down  where  he  belonged,  gave  him  dis 
tinctly  to  understand  that  he  was  simply  an  ordinary  prisoner  of 
war,  and  that  the  Government  would  require  the  same  good  be 
havior  of  him  in  every  respect  as  it  required  of  the  humblest 
member  of  the  band,  and  then  left  the  situation  to  work  out  its 
own  conclusion.  Stripped  of  his  factitious  distinction,  Geronimo 
soon  ceased  to  be  the  great  man  of  the  band.  He  worked  with 
the  rest,  as  hard  and  as  effectively  as  his  advanced  years  would 
permit.  It  would  be  flattery  to  say  that  he  accepted  this  change 
of  status  with  alacrity,  or  even  that  he  submitted  to  it  with  a 
wholly  cheerful  grace.  But  he  did  submit,  and  that  was  all  his 
custodian  demanded  of  him.  The  young  men  of  the  band  wit 
nessed  his  descent  in  glory,  and  were  duly  impressed.  They 
observed,  also,  that  those  other  leaders  who  set  them  the  best 
example  in  adaptability  and  thrift  received  just  recognition  at  the 
hands  of  the  Government.  Captain  Scott  obtained  permission 


II 

to  enlist  the  head  men,  including  Geronimo,  as  scouts,  without 
reference  to  their  age  or  physical  condition.  The  scouts  have 
been  suitably  uniformed  in  army  blue  and  brass.  One  of  them 
is  without  an  eye,  a  second  is  lame,  a  third  bow-legged  ;  and 
various  other  defects  which  would  rule  them  out  if  they  offered 
themselves  for  enlistment  as  regular  troopers  are  overlooked 
under  the  circumstances.  The  point  to  be  gained  was  to  commit 
the  leaders  to  the  service-of  the  Government,  put  them  distinctly 
on  their  mettle,  command  their  influence  for  good  among  their 
own  people,  teach  them  that  there  was  more  real  eminence  to  be 
gained  by  wise  conduct  than  by  foolish,  and  give  the  rising  gen 
eration  the  incentive  of  possible  promotion.  The  plan  has 
worked  admirably.  The  scouts  are  proud  of  their  uniform,  and 
careful  to  avoid  disgracing  it.  They  perform  police  duty,  and 
keep  Captain  Scott  informed  of  what  goes  on  in  the  several 
villages,  so  that  he  can  take  measures  for  discipline  where  it  is 
needed.  Some  of  them  have  become  warmly  attached  to  him 
personally.  The  chevrons  are  tokens  of  distinguished  merit, 
and  the  Indians  recognize  the  fact.  Neither  they  nor  the  visi 
tors  to  Fort  Sill  fail  to  notice,  moreover,  that  Geronimo  himself 
wears  no  tape  on  his  sleeve,  and  this  object-lesson  does  its  silent 
work. 

Incidents  like  this 'occur  sometimes  :  A  young  Indian  left  his 
wife  and  took  up  with  another.  The  matter  was  reported  to 
Captain  Scott,  who  sent  for  the  man  and  questioned  him.  He 
admitted  what  he  had  done,  but  offered  as  an  excuse  that  his 
first  wife  and  he  could  not  agree,  and  that  he  did  not  want  to 
live  with  her  any  longer. 

"  Very  well,"  said  the  Captain,"  if  you  are  unhappy  together, 
I  shall  not  force  you  to  share  one  home ;  but  in  the  eye  of  the 
law,  which  you  must  respect,  that  woman  is  still  your  wife,  and 
you  have  no  right  to  live  with  any  other." 

"  What  will  happen  if  I  continue  to  do  so?"  asked  the  Indian. 

"  I  shall  be  obliged  to  put  you  in  the  guard-house,  and  keep 
you  on  bread  and  water  as  long  as  the  military  regulations 
allow." 

The  young  man  protested  that  this  was  a  pretty  harsh  punish 
ment,  but  Captain  Scott  explained  to  him  that  bigamy  was 
punishable  by  imprisonment  in  the  case  of  a  white  man,  and  an 


12 

Indian  must  not  expect  to  find  the  way  of  the  lawbreaker  any 
easier  because  of  the  color  of  his  skin.  "  Now  go  and  think  this 
over,  and  come  back  to-morrow  and  tell  me  what  you  have 
decided  to  do,"  said  he  in  conclusion.  The  next  day  the  offen 
der  appeared,  and  rather  doggedly  announced  that  he  would 
prefer  bachelorhood  to  imprisonment.  The  Captain  commended 
the  common  sense  of  this  view,  and  dismissed  the  case  without 
making  any  more  ado  about  it.  When  I  saw  the  man  a  little 
while  afterward  he  had  evidently  not  yet  overcome  his  chagrin, 
but  he  knew  with  whom  he  had  to  deal  and  was  making  the  best 
of  the  inevitable. 

As  has  been  said,  the  people  of  Arizona  cherish  a  very  ugly 
feeling  toward  the  Chiricahuas,  which  is  not  unnatural.  They 
do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  if  the  band  or  any  of  its  more  active 
members  should  come  back  to  their  old  haunts,  they  would  be 
given  short  shrift.  The  Arizona  feeling  was  shared  at  first  by 
the  Oklahoma  people,  who  denounced  in  unmeasured  terms  the 
planting  of  the  "murderous  band"  in  their  Territory  as  a 
menace  to  the  safety  of  the  white  population.  This  ingrafted 
sentiment  appears  to  have  almost,  if  not  entirely,  died  out.  At 
any  rate,  both  people  and  press  have  ceased  to  express  it,  and  no 
longer  have  any  more  to  say  about  the  imported  Apaches  than 
about  any  class  of  white  immigrants  who  have  settled  among 
them.  The  Indians  can  scarcely  have  failed  to  discover  this 
change,  due  to  their  good  behavior.  They  are  also,  doubtless, 
well  aware  of  what  would  result  if  they  should  run  away  and 
return  to  their  former  home.  But  Captain  Scott  has  not  felt 
justified  in  leaving  such  a  possibility  subject  to  a  mere  moral 
influence.  He  has  taken  the  precaution  to  obtain,  from  a  trusty 
Indian  who  is  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  country,  a  map  of 
the  trail  leading  from  Fort  Sill  to  Fort  Stanton,  New  Mexico, 
which  is  the  one  the  Apache  prisoners  would  take  if  they  should 
attempt  an  escape.  A  copy  of  it  has  been  filed  with  the  Adju 
tant  General  of  the  Department  of  the  Missouri,  so  that  if  the 
Indians  should  slip  away  in  the  night,  a  telegraphic  despatch  in 
the  morning  would  start  a  body  of  troops  at  once  for  some  point 
where  the  fugitives  could  be  promptly  headed  off  and  recaptured. 

It  is  not  likely  that  such  an  attempt  will  be  made  so  long  as 
Captain  Scott  remains  in  charge,  or  if  he  is  succeeded  by  an 


13 

officer  competent  and  willing  to  carry  out  his  policy.  Should 
circumstances  render  such  a  change  necessary,  however,  the 
Government  could  make  no  worse  mistake  than  to  reduce  in 
number  or  weaken  in  character  the  force  of  subordinates  now 
assisting  in  the  work  with  the  Apaches.  Two  particularly  strong 
men  in  this  corps  are  Lieutenant  Capron,  who  is  Captain  Scott's 
good  right  hand,  and  Dr.  Glennan,  the  army  surgeon,  who  has, 
by  his  kindness  as  well  as  his  professional  skill,  done  much  to 
win  the  Indians  away  from  the  thraldom  of  their  medicine  men. 
Five  others,  including  three  non-commissioned  officers  of  the 
Seventh  Cavalry  and  two  civilian  employees,  make  up  the  con 
tingent,  every  one  of  whom  is  needed  to  continue  this  large  and 
highly  important  work.  The  wonder  is,  not  that  so  many  per 
sons  can  find  in  it  full  employment  for  their  time,  but  that  a 
service  of  such  magnitude  can  be  efficiently  performed  by 

so  few. 

*         *         *         * 

Another  point  I  visited  was  Sante  Fe,  the  headquarters  of  the 
Pueblo  and  Jicarilla  agency.  This  agency  has  jurisdiction  not 
only  of  the  Jicarilla  Apaches  at  Dulce,  N.  M., — a  point  which 
can  be  reached  by  rail  only  by  going  away  east  and  north  into 
eastern  Colorado,  and  then  away  west  again  to  within  a  half-day's 
journey  of  the  Utah  line, — but  also  of  twenty  widely  separated 
pueblos  and  fourteen  schools.  The  total  enrolment  does  not  fall 
far  short  of  10,000  Indians.  The  agent  has  perhaps  a  larger 
load  to  carry  than  any  other  in  the  service.  It  is  a  physical 
impossibility  for  him  to  get  about  and  visit  all  parts  of  his 
domain  as  frequently  as  he  ought  to  in  order  to  keep  in 
close  touch  with  his  subordinates  and  their  work,  and  most 
agents  who  have  been  assigned  to  this  place  have  made  no 
attempt  to  do  so.  The  bulk  of  the  agent's  duties  must  be  per 
formed  through  correspondence,  which,  in  view  of  the  size  of 
the  field,  is  bound  to  be  very  voluminous.  The  highest  impor 
tance  attaches,  therefore,  to  the  choice  of  a  clerk.  A  lazy  drunk 
ard,  such  as,  on  at  least  one  occasion  within  a  short  time,  has 
been  sent  to  this  agency  to  write  the  letters  and  keep  the  records, 
is  considerably  worse  than  none  at  all.  It  was  the  old  story  of 
the  man  with  the  "  pull  " — a  survival  of  the  patronage  system. 

Captain  Charles  E.  Nordstrom,  of  the  army,  the  present  act- 


14 

ing  agent,  is  a  man  of  energy  and  resolution.  Properly  sup 
ported  at  Washington,  he  would  be  capable  of  making  a  mark  in 
this  place.  He  received  his  detail  last  spring.  Following  a  line 
of  predecessors  who,  as  a  rule,  have  been  content  to  let  things 
drift  for  the  sake  of  keeping  the  Indians  quiet  and  avoiding 
needless  quarrels  with  border  whites,  he  found  the  affairs  of  the 
agency  in  a  pretty  slack  condition,  and  has  been  trying  ever 
since  to  straighten  them  out.  By  gradually  moving  about  to  the 
extent  that  his  allowance  for  traveling  expenses  would  permit, 
he  has  made  the  personal  acquaintance  of  the  larger  part  of  the 
employees  of  both  agency  and  school  service  under  him,  and 
studied  somewhat  their  surroundings  and  methods.  I  am  glad 
to  say  that  he  has  found  a  most  efficient  assistant  in  Miss  Mary 
E.  Dissette,  who  has  given  so  many  years  to  hard  work  among 
the  Zunis,  first  as  a  missionary  and  afterward  as  a  Government 
teacher,  and  that  he  appreciates  her  at  her  true  value. 

The  Zunis,  by  the  way,  have  been  the  most  troublesome  of 
the  pueblo  Indians  attached  to  this  agency.  They  are  about 
1500  strong,  and,  from  the  ethnological  point  of  view,  perhaps 
the  most  interesting  Indians  of  New  Mexico.  At  any  rate,  they 
have  been  so  petted  and  pampered  and  coddled  by  a  number  of 
white  persons  of  both  sexes  who  have  lived  among,  them  osten 
sibly  in  the  interest  of  science,  that  they  have  come  to  consider 
themselves  a  little  better  than  the  whites  anywhere,  and  espe 
cially  superior  to  that  remote  abstraction  called  the  Government. 
Every  time  a  movement  has  been  made  in  the  way  of  holding 
them  responsible  for  violations  of  the  law  of  the  land,  some  of 
their  patrons  have  cried:  "Hands  off!  These  Indians  are 
merely  following  the  dictates  of  their  religion,  and  they  have 
the  same  right  to  religious  freedom  as  any  other  people  in  the 
United  States." 

No  one  exceeds  Captain  Nordstrom  in  his  respect  for  the 
rights  of  others  or  his  American  attachment  to  the  idea  of  reli 
gious  liberty  ;  but  he  promptly  asserted  that  where  the  exercise 
of  religious  rites  came  into  conflict  with  the  criminal  law  of  the 
land,  the  rites,  and  not  the  law,  would  have  to  give  way. 
The  Zunis  have  among  them  a  hierarchy  known  as  the  Priests  of 
the  Bow,  who  make  it  a  part  of  their  business  to  ferret  out  and 
punish  witchcraft.  When  Indians  fall  mysteriously  ill,  or  other 


afflictions  overtake  them  from  a  source  not  easily  discernible, 
these  priests  are  apt  to  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  the  sufferer 
is  bewitched.  The  next  thing  is  to  find  his  enchanter.  Having 
fixed  their  suspicions  upon  some  one,  the  Priests  of  the  Bow  try 
to  drag  from  him  by  torture  a  confession  that  he  has  been 
practising  witchcraft.  The  favorite  form  of  ordeal  is  tying 
the  witch's  arms,  slipping  a  stick  under  his  elbows  and  behind 
his  back,  and  hanging  him  by  this  stick.  If  he  attempts  to  re 
lieve  the  agonizing  strain  upon  his  armpits  by  bracing  his  feet 
against  the  wall  behind  him,  the  offending  feet  are  whipped  as 
an  additional  refinement  of  torture.  Sometimes  the  so-called 
witch  takes  the  chance  of  other  kinds  of  penance  by  confession  ; 
sometimes  he  goes  to  the  opposite  extreme  and  dies  while  still 
hanging,  nature  being  unable  to  endure  the  strain  longer;  some 
times  he  is  lowered  before  life  is  wholly  extinct,  and  has  the 
poor  satisfaction  of  breathing  out  his  life  in  a  horizontal  posi 
tion  ;  sometimes,  if  he  is  exceptionally  strong,  he  may  survive 
the  ordeal  altogether,  but  the  odds  are  always  against  him. 

Captain  Nordstrom  not  unreasonably  assumed  that,  when  it 
came  to  sacrificing  human  life,  even  religious  fanaticism  was  no 
excuse.  Other  agents  had  tried  to  interfere,  but  never  with 
such  a  show  of  force  as  convinced  the  priests  that  they  must 
give  up  their  witch-hanging  ceremonies  or  take  the  ribk  of  being 
hanged  themselves.  On  one  of  the  latest  occasions,  for  example, 
the  United  States  Marshal,  who  came  over  from  Gallup  to  arrest 
the  guilty  parties,  was  given  only  twenty-five  soldiers  from  Fort 
Wingate  to  assist  him.  All  the  effect  of  such  a  demonstration 
was  to  incite  the  Indians  to  more  violence.  They  gathered  with 
what  arms  they  could  command,  surrounded  the  troops,  jeered 
at  the  officers,  and  had  their  own  way  generally  until  another 
body  of  men  was  sent  from  the  Fort,  and  temporizing  measures 
wound  up  the  whole  affair,  no  arrests  being  made. 

The  latest  witch-hanging,  I  am  glad  to  say,  bore  more  serious 
fruit.  Captain  Nordstrom,  who  took  charge  of  the  agency 
about  the  time  it  occurred,  assured  the  Indian  Office  that  he 
could  put  a  summary  end  to  the  whole  business  if  properly 
supported,  and  called  for  four  troops  of  cavalry.  This  was  re 
garded  at  Washington,  at  first,  as  an  extraordinary  demand  ;  but 
he  insisted,  and  it  was  finally  decided  to  give  him  his  way. 


i6 

He  was  not  allowed  to  command  the  troops  himself,  on  an  ab 
surd  theory  that,  as  he  had  temporarily  accepted  a  detail  to  the 
service  of  the  Interior  Department,  he  could  not  properly  pe rform 
the  functions  of  an  officer  of  the  army  ;  but,  at  any  rate,  he  got 
his  soldiers. 

This  proof  that  the  Government  was  in  earnest  had  an  instan 
taneous  effect.  All  the  vainglory  of  the  Priests  of  the  Bow 
suddenly  forsook  them.  The  troops  came  first  and  inve*ted  the 
pueblo,  and  then  the  sheriff  arrived  and  made  his  arrests  without 
encountering  the  slightest  resistance.  The  accused  Indians  and 
the  witnesses  were  carried  before  a  Justice  at  Las  Lunas  for  a 
preliminary  examination,  and  then  the  accused  were  locked  up 
in  default  of  bail  to  await  the  February  term  of  court.  The  fear 
among  the  whites  who  know  these  Indians  best  is  that  a  plot 
has  been  arranged  for  making  one  old  Indian,  Hatotsi,  a  scape 
goat  for  all  the  guilty  parties ;  and  that,  when  he  has  been  sent 
to  prison  to  expiate  the  crimes  of  his  companions  and  the  excite 
ment  has  blown  over,  the  rest  of  the  culprits  will  join  to  wreak 
vengeance  upon  the  Indian  witnesses  who  have  stood  by  the 
Government  and  told  the  truth  in  court.  Indeed,  it  is  going  to 
call  into  play  all  the  cleverness  of  the  white  servants  of  the 
Government  to  keep  guard  over  the  witnesses  and  prevent  the 
guilty  parties  from  spiriting  them  away  before  the  trial,  or  terror 
izing  them  into  silence  at  the  critical  moment.  A  press 
despatch  of  recent  date  states  that  the  head  men  of  the  Zuni 
pueblo  have  met  in  council  and  decided,  in  view  of  the  now 
obvious  policy  of  the  Government  at  Washington,  that  witch- 
hanging  had  better  be  given  up  for  the  future,  as  they  do  not 
care  to  have  disturbances  with  the  troops  or  to  see  any  more  of 
their  people  carried  off  to  jail.  I  have  no  means  at  command 
for  verifying  this  story,  but  it  has  a  color  of  probability  at  least. 

It  must  not  be  inferred  from  all  this  that  Captain  Nordstrom 
has  confined  his  activities  to  the  punishment  of  crime  among  his 
Indians.  He  has  taken  quite  as  lively  an  interest  in  protecting 
the  property  rights  of  innocent  Indians  when  these  have  been 
menaced  by  the  somewhat  chaotic  condition  of  land  titles  in  cer 
tain  parts  of  the  Territory.  Through  his  urgent  representations, 
the  Department  has  been  induced  to  appoint  an  attorney  to  de- 


fend  the  interests  of  the  Indians  and  advise  with  the  agent  as 

cases  arise. 

*         *         *         * 

One  thing  is  very  much  needed  at  Santa  Fe"  ;  that  is,  a  house 
which  the  agent  can  use  as  a  lodging-place  for  the  Indians  who 
come  to  see  him  on  business.  The  distances  between  many  of  the 
pueblos  and  the  agency  are  long,  and  the  travel  difficult ;  and  as 
a  visit  from  a  delegation  of  Indians  to  the  agent  often  saves  the 
agent  a  troublesome  and  expensive  trip  to  their  pueblo,  it  is  but 
right  that  the  visitors  should  have  a  shelter  of  some  sort  for  the 
nights  they  are  obliged  to  pass  in  the  city.  The  Government 
owns  a  considerable  establishment  in  the  abandoned  military 
post  in  Santa  Fe.  It  includes  buildings  which  are  not  now  put  to 
any  profitable  use,  and  which  are  only  going  to  slow  decay. 
One  of  these  could  be  turned  over  to  the  agency  as  an  Indian 
lodge  without  cost,  and  would  be  a  great  boon  ;  but  it  is  a  slow 
task  to  arouse  the  interest  of  the  powers  that- be  in  such  a  project, 
because  few  persons  at  Washington  understand  the  needs  of  the 
agency,  and  there  are  parties  whose  private  advantage  is  pro 
moted  by  keeping  the  Department  either  ignorant  or  indifferent. 

While  in  Santa  Fe  I  visited  the  Indian  school  now  under  the 
superintendence  of  Colonel  Thomas  M.  Jones.  This  school  is 
admirably  situated  on  high,  well-drained  land,  a  short  distance 
out  of  town.  Colonel  Jones  is  a  Virginian  and  a  graduate  of 
West  Point,  but  resigned  his  commission  in  the  United  States 
army  and  entered  that  of  the  Confederacy  when  his  State  seceded 
from  the  Union.  He  manages  his  school  on  a  military  basis. 
He  has  had  experience  as  a  superintendent  in  the  white  schools 
of  Virginia,  and  was  in  the  Indian  service  under  the  first  Cleve 
land  administration  as  agent  for  the  Shoshones  on  the  Wind 
River  reservation  in  Wyoming.  His  wife  is  a  woman  of  energy 
and  force,  and  takes  a  special  motherly  interest  in  the  younger 
children.  They  both  encourage  open-air  sports  among  the  pupils, 
who  have  proved  their  prowess  by  defeating  the  white  boys  of 
the  neighborhood  at  baseball  and  similar  games.  As  the  school 
was  out  of  session  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  I  was  unable  to  wit 
ness  any  of  the  class-room  work,  but  I  was  impressed  by  the 
obvious  popularity  of  the  school  among  the  young  Indians  wher 
ever  I  went  in  the  Southwest  this  summer.  The  boys  and  girls 


i8 

from  Santa  Fe  go  home  and  carry  on  a  vigorous  propaganda 
among  their  mates  on  the  reservations,  not  only  coming  back 
gladly  themselves,  but  bringing  in  new  scholars  with  them  at  the 
beginning  of  each  term.  As  the  school  draws  upon  the  mem 
bership  of  a  large  number  of  different  tribes, — the  Apaches,  the 
Navajos,  the  Utes,  the  Pimas  and  Papagos,  and  the  various 
pueblos, — the  pupils  have  no  common  language  ;  and  the  policy 
of  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Jones,  in  encouraging  sports  in  which  all 
can  join,  has  the  effect  of  making  them  learn  English  readily  as 
the  tongue  in  which  they  can  reach  the  largest  number  of  play 
fellows. 

From  Sante  Fe  I  passed  to  Albuquerque.  The  school  there  is 
in  some  respects  the  worst  I  have  ever  visited.  After  inspecting 
it,  I  can  no  longer  wonder  at  the  brevity  of  service  there  of 
superintendents  who  are  able  to  get  a  transfer  to  almost  any 
other  post.  It  is  wrong  for  the  Government  to  throw  upon  the 
shoulders  of  a  conscientious  school-worker  the  responsibility  of 
caring  for  300  Indian  children  under  conditions  such  as  he  must 
face  at  this  place. 

Whoever  chose  the  site  for  the  Albuquerque  school  made 
a  fatal  blunder.  The  land  is  low — so  low  that  there  is  a  fall  of 
but  eight  feet  in  the  mile  and  one-half  distance  between  the 
school  and  its  only  drainage  outlet,  the  Rio  Grande  River,  or 
about  one-eighth  of  an  inch  to  the  foot.  Such  a  fall,  of  course, 
puts  it  out  of  the  question  for  any  sewer  to  flush  itself  thoroughly, 
no  matter  how  steady  the  flow  through  it.  Artificial  flushing,  if 
done  properly,  would  involve  some  extra  mechanical  appliances 
and  a  large  drain  upon  the  water  resources,  and  still  would  pro 
duce  results  not  nearly  so  satisfactory  as  natural  flushing.  A 
sewer  system,  according  to  the  latest  estimates,  would  cost  not 
less  than  from  #25,000  to  $30,000. 

As  it  is  now,  the  place  is  unfit  for  habitation.  The  outhouses 
send  forth  the  most  nauseous  odors,  which  the  wind  carries  into 
the  buildings  where  pupils  and  employees  are  living.  The  slops 
and  garbage  from  the  kitchen  pass  through  a  drain-pipe  at  the 
ground-floor  level,  and  are  emptied  into  an  open  barrel  sunk  in 
the  earth  just  outside  of  the  kitchen  porch.  The  greatest  care 
it  is  possible  to  exercise  in  emptying  this  barrel  periodically  with 
buckets  and  carrying  the  contents  off  to  the  muck  heaps  does 


not  suffice  to  keep  it  in  decent  condition.  Even  the  hospital 
refuse  has  to  be  disposed  of  by  buckets  and  hand  labor.  Cer 
tainly  such  object-lessons  are  not  calculated  to  impress  the 
Indian  children  with  the  superiority  of  white  men's  ways  over 
those  of  the  dwellers  in  tepee  and  hogan,  which  are  scarcely  more 
primitive.  Bancroft  1 

The  buildings  are,  as  a  rule,  very  old  or  very  poor.  Two  or 
three,  perhaps,  in  the  entire  plant,  are  worth  the  money  needed 
to  keep  them  in  fair  repair.  In  the  boys'  dormitory  building  I 
found  some  of  the  walls  and  ceilings  stripped  wholly  of  their 
old  coat  of  plaster  and  preparing  to  take  on  a  new  one.  This 
was  not  because  the  old  coat  had  come  off  of  itself,  but  because 
it  had  been  found  absolutely  necessary  to  knock  the  whole  thing  to 
pieces  as  the  shortest  way  to  get  rid  of  the  vermin  which  infested 
it. 

It  would  take  more  space  than  can  be  spared  for  the  present 
writing  to  give  anything  like  an  adequate  picture  of  the  condi 
tion  of  things  at  this  school.  This  is  all  the  more  deplorable 
because  Albuquerque  is  well  situated  for  such  an  institution. 
Had  its  founders  used  ordinary  common  sense,  they  would  have 
built  the  school  on  a  high,  dry,  and  sightly  mesa  to  the  east  of 
the  present  location,  where  wholesome  drainage  could  have  been 
effected  without  trouble.  The  soil  and  climate  are  well  adapted 
for  fruit-farming,  and  this  could  have  been  made  the  chief  in 
dustrial  feature,  and  the  school  used  as  a  feeder  for  the  labor 
market  upon  which  southwestern  fruit-growers  must  draw.  To 
be  popular  among  Indians,  it  is  of  the  first  importance  that  a 
school  shall  have  a  reputation  for  healthfulness,  and  that  the 
Albuquerque  school  has  not,  for  the  causes  already  cited.  The 
more  careful  agents  are  suspicious  of  it,  and  are  not  so  ready  to 
drum  up  recruits  for  it  among  their  Indians  as  for  some  other 
schools.  It  would  be  a  good  thing  if  the  Government  could 
bring  itself  to  the  point  of  abolishing  the  Albuquerque  school 
altogether,  and,  with  the  money  it  now  spends  there,  enlarging 
and  improving  one  of  the  other  schools  which  has  the  same 
country  tributary  to  it — the  one  at  Santa  Fe,  for  instance,  already 
described  ;  or  the  one  at  Fort  Lewis,  which  is  well  adapted  for 
pupils  from  tribes  that  live  at  a  high  altitude,  and  which  has  a 


20 

good  basis  for  its  plant,  and  needs  only  the  expenditure  of  a  fair 
amount  of  money  to  be  put  into  first-class  condition. 

If  the  Albuquerque  school  is  continued,  the  Government 
should  acquire  land  enough  on  the  mesa  to  transfer  the  entire 
plant  thither  and  equip  it  with  modern  buildings.  To  keep 
things  as  they  are  is  a  disgrace  to  a  civilization  which  professes 
to  offer  to  the  Indians  something  better  in  a  material  sense  than 
what  they  now  possess. 

*         *         *         * 

My  next  visit  was  to  the  Navajo  agency  at  Fort  Defiance,  in 
Arizona,  where  I  found  Major  Williams,  the  acting  agent,  strug 
gling  with  the  problem  of  providing  better  quarters  for  the 
school  at  Little  Water.  Mrs.  DeVore  and  her  sister,  Mrs.  Has- 
kell,  have  had  the  most  discouraging  experience  in  managing 
this  school.  Mrs.  Ha'skell,  when  I  reached  the  agency,  was 
there,  recruiting  her  health  after  a  season  of  great  privation  and 
hardship  in  which  her  nervous  system  had  been  almost  wrecked. 

The  Indians  in  the  neighborhood  of  Little  Water  have  sup 
ported  the  school  well  in  spite  of  the  cramped  and  miserable 
quarters.  The  children  from  a  distance  have  had  to  be  given 
shelter  as  well  as  food,  and  this  has  meant  their  sleeping  four  in 
a  bed,  and  eating — mercy  only  knows  how.  All  the  water  has 
to  be  carried  from  a  spring  a  half-mile  distant.  Dirt  floors  and 
leaking  roofs  have  tended  to  dissipate  the  lessons  in  cleanliness 
and  home  comfort  which  the  teachers  have  tried  to  impress  ;  and 
altogether  it  has  seemed  as  if  all  the  forces  of  nature  had  con 
spired  together  to  cause  the  Government  to  abandon  its  effort  to 
do  anything  at  this  place.  But  a  better  day  seems  to  be  dawn 
ing.  The  contractors  of  the  neighborhood,  having  kept  their 
bids  for  new  buildings  at  so  high  a  figure  that  the  Indian  Ofpce 
has  not  felt  justified  in  putting  up  any  in  that  manner,  Mdjor 
Williams  has  taken  the  matter  in  hand  himself,  and  proposes  to 
build  the  absolutely  necessary  quarters  from  such  allowances  as 
the  Office  could  make  him  from  its  general  fund.  Being  some 
thing  of  an  architect  in  an  amateur  way,  he  has  submitted 
drawings  to  Washington  which  have  been  approved,  and  he 
will  strike  in  at  once.  Three  thousand  dollars  has  been  set 
apart  for  him  to  begin  work  with,  and  he  will  also  receive 


21 

what  is  needed  to  sink  a  well  and  thus  save  the  heavy  task  of 
drawing  the  water-supply  from  a  distance.  Mrs.  DeVore  and 
Mrs.  Haskell,  who  in  their  discouragement  had  applied  for  trans 
fers  to  other  posts,  have  therefore  gone  back  to  Little  Water 
with  fresh  hope. 

The  boarding-school  at  Fort  Defiance  has  passed  under  the 
superintendency  of  Francis  M.  Neel,  who  has  a  good  record  in 
the  service.  He  is  a  young  man,  in  full  vigor  of  body  and 
mind,  who  regards  his  work  as  opening  a  career,  and  seems 
resolved  to  make  it  a  success  if  possible.  The  school-buildings 
are  not,  as  a  rule,  of  the  best.  One  of  them,  the  girls'  dormitory 
building,  is  modern  and  in  pretty  fair  repair.  The  boys'  build 
ing  is,  however,  in  need  of  many  changes  to  put  it  into  anything 
like  satisfactory  condition  ;  and  the  best  thing  the  Government 
could  do  with  it,  probably,  would  be  to  tear  it  down  and  rear  a 
new  and  better  one  in  its  place.  The  drainage  of  this  building 
is  particularly  bad,  the  water  from  the  bath-  and  wash-rooms 
dripping  into  a  small  pool  under  the  ground  floor  and  render 
ing  the  lower  story  damp  and  unwholesome.  The  largest  class 
room  at  the  school  is  in  a  one-story  building  by  itself,  which  was 
not  built  for  school  purposes,  but  is  one  of  the  abandoned 
houses  of  the  old  fort.  Whitewash,  plaster,  and  paint  have  done 
all  that  they  can  to  make  this  room  comfortable  and  sightly,  but 
the  lighting  is  not  of  the  best,  and  practically  the  only  ventila 
tion  is  through  openings  in  the  roof  into  which  the  stovepipes 
ascend,  but  which,  with  the  arrangement  of  the  stoves  as  I  found 
them,  carry  off  about  twice  as  much  warmth  as  vitiated  air. 

The  irrigation  work  on  the  Navajo  reservation,  since  the  sub 
stitution  of  George  Butler  for  E.  C.  Vincent  as  engineer,  appears 
to  have  proceeded  satisfactorily.  Mr.  Butler  received  his  train 
ing  in  this  work  under  Walter  H.  Graves,  the  expert  in  charge 
of  the  corresponding  enterprise  on  the  Crow  reservation.  The 
only  criticism  I  heard  passed  upon  his  work  was,  that  he  had 
made  some  of  it  unnecessarily  substantial ;  but  as  the  ditches, 
gates,  etc.,  will  pass  into  the  custody  of  the  Indians  after  he  has 
finished  them,  and  will  have  to  be  kept  in  repair  by  these  com 
paratively  ignorant  men,  their  strength  is  likely  to  prove  a  virtue 
rather  than  a  fault. 

After  considerable  spurring,  the  Department  of  the  Interior 


22 

this  summer  moved  in  the  matter  of  the  Navajos,  ruthlessly  dis 
possessed  of  their  homes  by  the  sheriff  of  Coconino  County,  and 
procured  from  the  Attorney-General  an  order  to  the  Federal 
District  Attorney  to  investigate  the  case  and  try  to  bring  the 
authors  of  the  outrage  to  justice.  This  order  had  scarcely  gone 
forth  before  the  Democratic  District  Attorney  then  in  charge 
had  to  make  way  for  a  Republican  successor,  and  the  proceedings 
came  temporarily  to  a  standstill.  The  impression  prevailed, 
wherever  I  inquired  about  it,  that,  for  local  political  reasons,  the 
prosecution  would  not  amount  to  anything  unless  special  counsel 
were  employed,  and  that  would  have  to  be  done  by  outsiders. 
It  is  recommended  that,  if  any  philanthropic  association  desires 
to  employ  such  counsel  for  the  Indians,  it  retain  the  services  of 
Mr.  Tipton,  the  acting  sub-agent,  who  took  so  strong  an  interest 
in  the  case  and  made  the  first  official  report  on  it,  and  who,  hav 
ing  recently  had  his  salary  seriously  reduced,  is  about  to  leave 
the  Indian  service  and  resume  the  practice  of  law. 

Miss  Thackara's  hospital,  near  the  Navajo  agency,  has  been 
open  now  for  one  season,  though  still  incomplete  in  both  build 
ings  and  equipment.  It  is  by  far  the  most  attractive  and  im 
pressive  house  in  the  whole  region  round  about,  being  built  of  a 
white  stone  quarried  on  the  cliffs  overlooking  the  Fort.  The 
Indians  admire  it  very  much.  Miss  Thackara  is  badly  off  for 
help.  She  has  had  to  depend  for  medical  and  surgical  services 
thus  far  wholly  on  the  agency  physician,  Dr.  C.  J.  Finnegan, 
who  has  his  own  duties  to  attend  to,  and  whose  aid  must,  there 
fore,  be  more  or  less  fitful,  no  matter  how  earnest  his  purpose. 
Her  one  Indian  male  helper  has  to  be  at  once  interpreter,  team 
ster  and  laborer  ;  and  when  he  is  absent,  hauling  freight  or  en 
gaged  in  other  manual  occupation,  she  has  no  one  to  act  as  a 
medium  of  communication  with  the  Indians.  She  was  also,  at 
the  time  of  my  visit,  without  any  satisfactory  female  assistant, 
and  had  to  be  nurse,  cook,  laundress,  housekeeper,  and  all  the 
rest,  herself.  Of  course,  it  is  impracticable  to  make  any  headway 
with  her  hospital  work  proper  under  such  conditions.  But  she 
has  made  a  start,  and  the  fame  of  her  first  important  case — that 
of  a  patient  whose  arm  was  successfully  amputated — has  spread 
over  the  reservation  with  good  effect.  She  is  now  negotiating 
to  procure  the  services  of  a  woman  who  is  a  graduate  in  medi- 


23 

cine  and  a  trained  nurse,  and  who  will  be  able  to  divide  duties 
and   responsibilities  with  her  and  help  the  hospital  to  take  its 

next  step  forward. 

*         *         *         * 

From  Fort  Defiance  I  went  over  to  Keam's  Canyon  and  the 
first  of  the  Moqui  mesas.  This  is  a  hundred-mile  journey  through 
a  rough,  barren,  and  waterless  country.  At  the  mesa  I  stayed, 
with  Major  Williams  and  his  party,  in  an  Indian  house  in  the 
pueblo  of  Sichomnavi,  and,  among  other  things,  witnessed  the 
two  great  religious  ceremonials  of  the  year — the  antelope  dance 
and  the  snake  dance  at  Walpi.  Of  these  so  much  has  been 
written  and  printed  that  no  special  report  is  called  for  here. 

Something  must  be  done,  and  that  very  soon,  for  the  Moqui 
boarding-school.  The  plant  at  Keam's  Canyon,  never  very 
large  or  very  good,  has  long  been  outgrown  by  the  needs  of  the 
Indians.  The  natural  beauty  of  the  location  and  the  excellence 
of  the  water-supply  have  thus  far  outbalanced  any  arguments  for 
changing  its  site,  but  there  seem  to  be  good  reasons  for  not  put 
ting  any  more  heavy  and  expensive  buildings  there,  on  account  of 
the  poor  foundation  which  can  be  got  in  so  soft  a  soil.  Moreover, 
having  purchased  the  plant  and  improved  it,  the  Government 
may  well  question  the  wisdom  of  abandoning  it  as  long  as 
there  is  no  menace  to  the  health  of  pupils  or  teachers. 

But  with  its  present  dimensions  the  school  can  not  be  made  to 
do  its  legitimate  work.  For  the  sake  of  keeping  up  its  reputation 
with  the  Indians  and  with  the  authorities  at  Washington,  all 
the  children  have  been  taken  who  could  possibly  be  packed  into 
the  school.  To  crowd  three  children  into  one  three-quarter 
bed  may  be  enterprising  and  economical,  but  it  is  not  whole 
some,  nor  is  it  much  of  an  advance,  fundamentally,  upon  the 
sleeping  arrangements  of  the  Indians  at  home.  Yet  that  is  what 
has  been  going  on  at  Keam's  Canyon,  the  school  being  made  to 
accommodate  fifty  per  cent,  more  pupils  than  there  was  proper 
space  for. 

Superintendent  Ralph  Collins,  who  is  about  to  leave  this 
school  to  take  charge  of  a  new  and  larger  establishment  in  South 
Dakota,  has  spent  much  time  within  the  last  two  years  in  pros 
pecting  for  a  better  site.  He  has  found  what  he  believes  to  be 
an  eligible  point,  more  nearly  equidistant  from  all  three  mesas, 


24 

the  Canyon  having  the  disadvantage  of  thirty  miles'  distance  from 
the  third  mesa,  though  only  fifteen  miles  from  the  first.  He  claims 
that  a  good  water-supply  and  an  abundance  of  fertile  land  are 
to  be  found  at  the  proposed  new  site,  and  other  persons  familiar 
with  the  neighborhood  bear  him  out  in  this  view. 

It  might  be  feasible  to  make  use  of  both  places.  The  present 
plant,  with  all  its  faults,  is  too  good  to  throw  away,  and  might 
be  kept  as  a  school  for  industrial  instruction  exclusively,  while 
a  new  school  could  be  reared  on  the  other  tract  to  serve  the 
purposes  of  general  instruction,  such  as  is  given  now  at  Keam's 
Canyon.  The  Moquis  are  a  particularly  intelligent  people,  and 
the  Government  will  be  well  repaid  for  furnishing  to  them  all 
the  educational  facilities  it  can.  Two  boarding-schools  would 
be  by  no  means  too  many,  especially  if  one  of  them  were  put 
near  enough  to  the  second  and  third  mesas  to  leave  the  inhabi 
tants  of  those  mesas  no  longer  with  an  excuse  for  keeping  their 
children  at  home. 

Before  closing  this  report,  I  wish  to  record  here,  briefly,  the 
fact  that  this  visit  to  the  Walpi  mesa  gave  me  a  more  satisfactory 
object-lesson  than  I  had  ever  enjoyed  before  in  the  practical 
work  the  Indian  schools — even  the  most  primitive  of  them — are 
doing.  It  is  quite  the  fashion  nowadays  to  decry  this  work. 
On  every  side  we  hear  persons  of  generally  good  judgment  say 
ing:  "The  Government^  throwing  its  money  away.  The 
Indian  children  are  gathered  into  the  schools  and  taught,  but  as 
soon  as  they  return  to  their  homes  they  drop  back  into  the  old 
tribal  life,  and  all  that  has  been  done  for  them  is  lost."  This 
is  a  serious  error,  which  no  one  ought  to  make  if  he  pauses  long 
enough  to  consider  all  the  conditions.  It  is  true  that  most  of 
the  children  drop  back  into  the  tribal  life ;  it  would  be  strange 
indeed  if  they  did  not.  Race  characteristics  which  have  been 
transmitted  from  generation  to  generation  for  centuries  are  not 
to  be  uprooted  in  a  day,  or  a  year,  or  a  good  many  years.  The 
Indians  are  not  peculiar  in  that  respect.  Any  one  who  has  a 
chance  to  study  social  conditions  among  all  classes  of  whites 
will  find  the  same  rule  prevailing  there.  Do  we  change  the 
whole  nature  of  a  white  boy  who  has  been  reared  amid  vulgar 
associations  by  sending  him  to  school  ?  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten, 
does  not  the  clodhopper  who  has  been  put  through  college 


25 

become  a  clodhopper  again  if  he  returns  to  pass  his  remaining 
years  amid  his  old  environment  ?  For  that  reason  shall  we  close 
our  public  schools,  or  shut  the  doors  of  our  higher  institutions 
in  the  face  of  every  boor  who  can  not  bond  himself  not  to  return 
to  his  boorish  associations  after  he  has  won  his  diploma? 

Whoever  would  propose  such  a  course  would  stamp  himself  a 
fool.  Common  sense  revolts  against  it.  The  boor  who  has  been 
given  a  taste  of  a  higher  life  is  a  different  boor  from  the  one  who 
has  not,  however  uncouth  he  may  still  appear  outwardly.  Why, 
then,  should  we  argue  that  it  is  a  waste  of  money  or  energy  to 
give  the  Indian  child  a  chance  to  learn  better  things  than  he  will 
learn  if  kept  in  the  tepee  or  the  pueblo  ?  Suppose  he  does  re 
turn,  so  far  as  outward  appearances  go,  to  the  ways  of  his  fathers  ; 
does  it  follow  that  he  goes  all  the  way  back  to  barbarism  because, 
with  the  renewal  of  the  old  influences,  he  dons  the  blanket  again 
and  lets  his  hair  grow  long  ?  We  may  regret  that  we  have  not 
turned  him  inside  out  and  made  him  over  into  another  being, 
but  we  must  ignore  all  the  laws  that  govern  human  nature  if  we 
expect  to  accomplish  such  a  metamorphosis.  We  have  got  to 
learn  patience.  The  seed  has  been  sown  ;  we  must  content  our 
selves  to  let  it  sprout  in  its  own  time,  not  in  ours. 

In  the  Indian  dwelling  where  our  party  stayed,  the  mother 
and  daughters  swept  our  floor,  made  our  beds,  cooked  our  food, 
set  our  table,  and  washed  our  dishes ;  and  they  did  these  things 
better  than  many  whites  of  a  corresponding  class  could.  It  is 
not  so  many  years  since  that  adult  woman  would  have  been  in 
capable  of  taking  care  of  us  in  such  a  manner.  She  had  never 
been  to  school,  but  the  girls  had.  At  their  school  they  had  been 
taught  how  white  men  live,  and  they  had  carried  their  accom 
plishments  home  with  them.  It  is  true  that  they  had  gone  back 
to  their  tribal  dress — with  a  few  slight  modifications.  They  still 
cherished  their  katchinas,  or  toy  images  of  the  good  and  bad 
deities  worshipped  by  their  people.  They  still  attended  the 
dances,  and  apparently  found  pleasure  in  them.  Before  we 
came,  and  after  we  left,  they  doubtless  followed  most  of  the  old 
habits  of  living,  for  their  elders  were  accustomed  to  these  habits 
and  were  too  well  wedded  to  them  to  change. 

But  were  the  children  no  better  for  having  attended  a  Govern 
ment  school,  even  for  a  single  year  ?  Beyond  a  doubt ;  they  had 


26 

learned  that  there  were  other  ways  of  living  than  those  in  which 
they  had  been  brought  up,  and  that  no  harm,  at  least,  came 
from  following  such  ways.  The  spell  which  bound  their  young 
lives  had  been  broken.  They  were  no  longer  afraid  of  the 
white  people.  On  the  contrary,  they  had  learned  that  there 
were  many  good  white  people  who  loved  them  and  wished  to 
teach  them  new  and  useful  things.  The  school,  as  an  institu 
tion,  had  been  robbed  of  the  terrors  which  had  enveloped  it  in 
the  minds  of  their  grandsires,  and  which  still  hung  mistily  over 
it  even  in  the  minds  of  their  parents. 

These  little  girls  will,  in  their  turn,  grow  up  and  have  children 
of  their  own.  They  will  not  object  to  letting  their  children  go 
to  school  or  mix  with  the  white  civilization.  Thus  the  work 
will  go  on.  Each  generation  will  know  more,  and  be  prepared 
to  do  better,  than  its  predecessor.  My  experience  among  the 
Moquis  was  not  unique.  I  had  observed  the  same  facts  before, 
and  among  other  tribes,  but  last  summer's  visit  brought  them 
home  to  me  with  uncommon  force.  If  every  reader  of  these 
lines  could  have  looked  through  my  eyes  for  a  little  while, 
despair  would  have  had  no  place  in  his  philosophy  thereafter. 


